HDMI 2.0 Standard Announced, 4K Video, 60fps with 32-Channel Audio

Call it a year delayed or fashionably late, either way we now have an official HDMI Version 2.0 specification. It's the first HDMI specification to be developed by the HDMI Forum and it offers a significant increase in bandwidth (up to 18Gbps, compared to 10Gbps for HDMI 1.4) so that it can support features like the emerging 4K video standard at up to 60fps.

In addition to offering up support for 4K video, which is 4 times the resolution of Full HD 1080p, HDMI 2.0 supports 32 audio channels and dynamic auto lip-sync, and adds extensions to CEC, HDMI Forum said.

"The introduction of the HDMI 2.0 Specification represents a major milestone for the HDMI Forum," said Robert Blanchard of Sony Corporation, president of the HDMI Forum. "Our members collaborated closely to take the highly successful HDMI specification to the next level by expanding audio and video features for consumer electronics applications."

If you're already heavily invested in your home theater setup, one thing you won't have to worry about is buying new cables. Current high speed cables (category 2) are capable of carrying the increased bandwidth.